Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) was pleased to co-host the one-day virtual conference of the 22nd Amity Conference of Overseas Compatriots in Africa. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this was the first time that the Amity Conference of Overseas Compatriots in Africa had gone virtually. About 130 people from 10 African nations joined the conference.
Ms. Tsung Mei Sun, Council Member of OCAC, hosted the conference as the organizer. Amb. Tung, Chen-Yuan, Minister of OCAC, joined Ms. Wendy Yu-Hsia Wen, legislator of Legislative Yuan, Mr. Wang Feng Yu, the National Policy Advisor in delivering opening remarks. Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Bureau of Foreign Trade, MOEA (Ministry of Economic Affairs), Taiwan External Trade Development Council all attended the event in the Taipei venue. In addition, Jeremy H. S. Liang , the Representative of Embassy of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in the Kingdom of Eswatini, Anthony C.Y. Ho, the Representative of Taipei Liaison Office in the Republic of South Africa, Andy Yih-Ping Liu, the Representative of Taipei Trade Office in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Allen Chen hwa Lou, the Representative of Taiwan Representative Office in the Republic of Somaliland, Mr. Yin-Tso Lin, the Director General of Taipei Liaison Office in Cape Town, South Africa all online attended the conference. To honor the conference, President Ing-wen Tsai also sent a video message.
Most of the participants were OCAC honorary members and Taiwan’s expatriate personnel from all over the African continent. They come together to talk about the current issues of overseas compatriots affairs in Africa. In the conference, the participants productively discussed the important topics, such as how to establish contact points and build networks to facilitate exchange of business practices, expertise, and information, etc., and how to strive for more cooperation and exchanges with their host nations for Taiwan, and how to efficiently implement the African Project. The conference highlighted how to improve the depth and breadth of cooperation and exchanges between Taiwan and African nations and how our government can support our overseas compatriots in Africa to further their prosperity by enhancing the international integration of their information, resources and talents to help each other . 
Enhancing People-to-people exchange is one of the main goals of the “African Project”. Taiwan has a strong record of cooperation and joint achievement. For decades, Taiwan has championed the fairness and reciprocity-based partnership to ensure that both Taiwan and African nations can benefit from our continued engagements. The discussion in the conference allowed the action offices of the Project to explore the practicalities of realizing these identified goals, in the hope to significantly deepen the relationship between Taiwan and African nations by boosting the trade through our overseas compatriots in Africa. 

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